Methods and apparatus for audio watermarking a substantially silent media content presentation

• US 8,355,910 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2010
• Issued: 01/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Company (US) LLC (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: McMillan, Francis Gavin, Kilian, Istvan Stephen Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): PULLIAS, JESSE SCOTT
• Application Number:
  US12/750,359
• Publication Number:
  US 20110246202A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,022 Days
• Field of Search: 704/E19.009, 704/226, 704/227, 704/243, 713/176, 386/260, 381/58
• US Class Current: 704/226
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for audio watermarking a substantially silent media content presentation are disclosed. An example method to audio watermark a media content presentation disclosed herein comprises obtaining a watermarked noise signal comprising a watermark and a noise signal having energy substantially concentrated in an audible frequency band, the watermarked noise signal attenuated to be substantially inaudible without combining with a separate audio signal, associating the watermarked noise signal with a substantially silent content component of the media content presentation, the media content presentation comprising one or more media content components, and outputting the watermarked noise signal during presentation of the substantially silent content component.

Claims

1. A method to audio watermark a media presentation, the method comprising:

obtaining a watermarked noise signal comprising a watermark and a noise signal having energy substantially concentrated in an audible frequency band, the watermarked noise signal attenuated, based on an ambient noise level sensed in an environment in which the media presentation is to be presented, to be substantially inaudible without combining with a separate audio signal;

associating the watermarked noise signal with a substantially silent media component of the media presentation, the media presentation comprising one or more media components; and

outputting the watermarked noise signal during presentation of the substantially silent media component.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the noise signal corresponds to at least one of a substantially white noise signal filtered by a bandpass filter with a passband corresponding to the audible frequency band, or a pseudorandom noise signal filtered by the bandpass filter with a passband corresponding to the audible frequency band.

3. A method as defined in claim 2 wherein the watermark signal is a signal having frequencies modulated to convey digital information to identify the substantially silent media component.

4. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the media presentation corresponds to a graphical user interface (GUI) comprising a plurality of substantially silent media components each corresponding to a respective GUI widget capable of being presented by the GUI.

5. A method as defined in claim 4 wherein the watermarked noise signal is a first watermarked noise signal associated with a first GUI widget, the method further comprising:

associating a second watermarked noise signal with a second GUI widget;

outputting the first watermarked noise signal when the GUI presents the first GUI widget; and

outputting the second watermarked noise signal when the GUI presents the second GUI widget.

6. A method as defined in claim 4 wherein the watermarked noise signal is a first watermarked noise signal associated with a first GUI widget, the method further comprising:

associating a second watermarked noise signal with a substantially silent embedded advertisement capable of being presented by the GUI;

outputting the first watermarked noise signal when the GUI presents the first GUI widget; and

outputting the second watermarked noise signal when the GUI presents the substantially silent embedded advertisement.

7. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising outputting the watermarked noise signal with the substantially silent media component and another substantially audible audio component.

8. A method as defined in claim 7 wherein the substantially audible audio component includes a second watermark that is detectable while the attenuated watermarked noise signal is also being output.

9. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising:

storing a plurality of watermarked noise signals, the plurality of watermarked noise signals associated with respective ones of a plurality of substantially silent media components capable of being included in the media presentation;

selecting a first one of the plurality of watermarked noise signals when a respective first one of the plurality of substantially silent media components is to be included in the media presentation; and

outputting the first one of the plurality of watermarked noise signals with the respective first one of the plurality of substantially silent media components.

10. A method as defined in claim 9 further comprising:

selecting a second one of the plurality of watermarked noise signals when a respective second one of the plurality of substantially silent media components is to be included in the media presentation; and

outputting a combination of the first and second ones of the plurality of watermarked noise signals with the respective first and second ones of the plurality of substantially silent media components.

11. A tangible machine readable storage medium comprising machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

obtain a watermarked noise signal comprising a watermark and a noise signal having energy substantially concentrated in an audible frequency band, the watermarked noise signal attenuated, based on an ambient noise level sensed in an environment in which a media presentation is to be presented, to be substantially inaudible without combining with a separate audio signal;

associate the watermarked noise signal with at least one of a substantially silent media component of the media presentation or a substantially silent operating state of a media presenting device, the media presentation comprising one or more media components; and

output the watermarked noise signal when at least one of the substantially silent media component is being presented or the media presenting device is determined to be in the substantially silent operating state.

12. A storage medium as defined in claim 11 wherein the noise signal corresponds to at least one of a substantially white noise signal filtered by a bandpass filter with a passband corresponding to the audible frequency band, or a pseudorandom noise signal filtered by the bandpass filter with a passband corresponding to the audible frequency band, and the watermark signal is a signal having frequencies modulated to convey digital information to identify the substantially silent media component.

13. A storage medium as defined in claim 11 wherein the media presentation corresponds to a graphical user interface (GUI) comprising a plurality of substantially silent media components each corresponding to a respective GUI widget capable of being presented by the GUI, the watermarked noise signal is a first watermarked noise signal associated with a first GUI widget, and the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

associate a second watermarked noise signal with a second GUI widget;

output the first watermarked noise signal when the GUI presents the first GUI widget; and

output the second watermarked noise signal when the GUI presents the second GUI widget.

14. A storage medium as defined in claim 13 wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

associate a third watermarked noise signal with a substantially silent embedded advertisement capable of being presented by the GUI; and

output the third watermarked noise signal when the GUI presents the substantially silent embedded advertisement.

15. A storage medium as defined in claim 11 wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

store a plurality of watermarked noise signals, the plurality of watermarked noise signals associated with respective ones of a plurality of substantially silent media components capable of being included in the media presentation;

select a first one of the plurality of watermarked noise signals when a respective first one of the plurality of substantially silent media components is to be included in the media presentation; and

output the first one of the plurality of watermarked noise signals with the respective first one of the plurality of substantially silent media components.

16. A storage medium as defined in claim 15 wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

select a second one of the plurality of watermarked noise signals when a respective second one of the plurality of substantially silent media components is to be included in the media presentation; and

output a combination of the first and second ones of the plurality of watermarked noise signals with the respective first and second ones of the plurality of substantially silent media components.

17. A media presenting device comprising:

a memory to store a watermarked noise signal comprising a watermark and a noise signal having energy substantially concentrated in an audible frequency band, the watermarked noise signal attenuated to be substantially inaudible without combining with a separate audio signal;

a watermark processor to detect whether the media presenting device is operating in a low audio volume state that is to cause a media presentation to be substantially silent, the media presentation comprising one or more media components, the watermark processor to also select the watermarked noise signal when the media presenting device is determined to be operating in the low audio volume state, the watermarked noise signal to indicate that the media presenting device is operating in the low audio volume state; and

an audio processor to output the watermarked noise signal when the media presenting device is determined to be operating in the low audio volume state.

18. A media presenting device as defined in claim 17 wherein the media presenting device is a game console, the media presentation corresponds to a graphical user interface (GUI) comprising a plurality of substantially silent media components each corresponding to a respective GUI widget capable of being presented by the GUI, the media presenting device further comprises a GUI processor to determine whether a first GUI widget or a second GUI widget is to be presented by the GUI, the watermark processor is to select a first watermarked noise signal stored in the memory when the GUI processor determines the first GUI widget is to be presented by the GUI, the watermark processor is to select a second watermarked noise signal stored in the memory when the GUI processor determines the second GUI widget is to be presented by the GUI, the audio processor is to output the first watermarked noise signal when the GUI presents the first GUI widget, and the audio processor is to output the second watermarked noise signal when the GUI presents the second GUI widget.

19. A media presenting device as defined in claim 18 further comprising an advertisement processor to select a substantially silent advertisement stored in the memory that is to be presented by the GUI, wherein the watermark processor is to select a third watermarked noise signal stored in memory when the advertisement processor determines the substantially silent advertisement is to be presented by the GUI, and the audio processor is to output the third watermarked noise signal when the GUI presents the substantially silent advertisement.

20. A media presenting device as defined in claim 17 wherein the memory is to store a plurality of watermarked noise signals associated with respective ones of a plurality of substantially silent media components capable of being included in the media presentation, the watermark processor is to select a first one of the plurality of watermarked noise signals when a respective first one of the plurality of substantially silent media components is to be included in the media presentation, the watermark processor is to select a second one of the plurality of watermarked noise signals when a respective second one of the plurality of substantially silent media components is to be included in the media presentation, and the audio processor is to output a combination of the first and second ones of the plurality of watermarked noise signals when the respective first and second ones of the plurality of substantially silent media components are included in the media presentation being presented by the media presenting device.